Victor Davis Hanson

Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow
Awards and Honors:
Statesmanship Award from the Claremont Institute
(2006)
Biography: 

Victor Davis Hanson is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution; his focus is classics and military history.

Hanson was a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, California (1992–93), a visiting professor of classics at Stanford University (1991–92), the annual Wayne and Marcia Buske Distinguished Visiting Fellow in History at Hillsdale College (2004–), the Visiting Shifron Professor of Military History at the US Naval Academy (2002–3),and the William Simon Visiting Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University (2010).

In 1991 he was awarded an American Philological Association Excellence in Teaching Award. He received the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism (2002), presented the Manhattan's Institute's Wriston Lecture (2004), and was awarded the National Humanities Medal (2007) and the Bradley Prize (2008).

Hanson is the author of hundreds of articles, book reviews, and newspaper editorials on Greek, agrarian, and military history and essays on contemporary culture. He has written or edited twenty-four books, the latest of which is The Case for Trump (Basic Books, 2019). His other books include The Second World Wars (Basic Books, 2017); The Savior Generals: How Five Great Commanders Saved Wars That Were Lost - from Ancient Greece to Iraq (Bloomsbury 2013); The End of Sparta (Bloomsbury, 2011); The Father of Us All: War and History, Ancient and Modern (Bloomsbury, 2010); Makers of Ancient Strategy: From the Persian Wars to the Fall of Rome (ed.) (Princeton, 2010); The Other Greeks (California, 1998); The Soul of Battle (Free Press, 1999); Carnage and Culture (Doubleday, 2001); Ripples of Battle (Doubleday, 2003); A War Like No Other (Random House, 2005); The Western Way of War (Alfred Knopf, 1989; 2nd paperback ed., University of California Press, 2000); The Wars of the Ancient Greeks (Cassell, 1999; paperback ed., 2001); and Mexifornia: A State of Becoming (Encounter, 2003), as well as two books on family farming, Fields without Dreams (Free Press, 1995) and The Land Was Everything (Free Press, 1998). Currently, he is a syndicated columnist for Tribune Media Services and a weekly columnist for the National Review Online.

Hanson received a BA in classics at the University of California, Santa Cruz (1975), was a fellow at the American School of Classical Studies, Athens (1977–78), and received his PhD in classics from Stanford University (1980).

Filter By:

Topic

Type

Recent Commentary

Analysis and Commentary

A Tour Through Recession America

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Sunday, April 11, 2010

The last seven days I tried to jot down what I saw in some slices of America in recession — and much of its seems at odds with our general government narrative.

Analysis and Commentary

Is There a Rhyme or Reason to U.S. Foreign Policy?

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Saturday, April 10, 2010

During the 2008 campaign, the Obama group argued that Bush & Co. were insensitive to allies and had acted in clumsy, unilateral fashion, permanently damaging our stature in the world.

Analysis and Commentary

Our American Catharsis

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Friday, April 9, 2010

For years conservatives have railed about the creeping welfare state. They have tried to tag liberals with being soft on national security, both for courting those who faulted America and for faulting others who courted it.

Analysis and Commentary

The End of Trust

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Thursday, April 8, 2010

The world is getting a little edgy when very few investors are willing to buy Greek bonds—given what they know about Greek politics and productivity.

Analysis and Commentary

The Ongoing Melodrama of Victims and Oppressors

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Thursday, April 8, 2010

President Obama, in the tradition of progressive Democratic leaders, believes governments should ask their countries’ more economically fortunate citizens to be responsible for helping the less well-off.

Analysis and Commentary

Thoughts on Allies Gone By

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Whatever the protestations of the Obama administration, many in both Britain and Israel feel that 2009–10 marked a watershed, the beginning of an era in which America was no longer a special friend to either — whether gauged by serial symbolic snubs or real policy differences on things like Jerusalem and the Falklands.

Analysis and Commentary

A Noble, Bad Idea

by Victor Davis Hansonvia City Journal
Tuesday, April 6, 2010

President Obama’s new nuclear policy is ill-timed and ill-conceived.

Analysis and Commentary

The Debt and Energy Conquer Even Hope and Change

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Corner (National Review Online)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010

While the administration is still beating the health-care horse, and offering more utopian notions about nuclear weapons (e.g., Why go nuclear, logical and rational Iran, when we won't use such weapons against you, even should you go chemical or nerve gas against us?), the two most dangerous developments continue to go unnoticed…

Analysis and Commentary

A Postmodern Presidency

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Works and Days
Sunday, April 4, 2010

Given thirty years of postmodern relativism in our universities, we were bound to get a postmodern president at some point.

Analysis and Commentary

Remembering the Pacific War

by Victor Davis Hansonvia Tribune Media Services
Thursday, April 1, 2010

Sixty-five years ago, on April 1, 1945, the United States Marines, Army, and Navy invaded Okinawa. The ensuing three months of combat resulted in the complete defeat and near destruction of imperial Japanese forces on the island...

Pages